Momentum Podcast: 613

Why Entrepreneurs Are Made for Crisis

by Alex Charfen

Introduction

Entrepreneurs are made for crisis. The world's been thrown sideways and we're all adjusting to it right now. We're dealing with a new reality that none of us ever expected. In this episode of the Momentum Podcast, Alex is going to help remind you as an entrepreneur that this is exactly what we're made for. We're different than the rest of the population. When there's a crisis, we're the ones who step up, create solutions and make the future of reality and Alex is going to share with you the mindset that every entrepreneur should remember and use throughout this crisis. I hope you enjoy.

Episode Description

The world has been thrown sideways and we are all adjusting. We are dealing with a new reality that none of us expected. It can feel challenging and overwhelming for all of us.

But I want to remind entrepreneurs, this is what we are made for. We are different than the rest of the population. When there is a crisis, we are the ones who step forward, create solutions, and make things happen. We have to remember who we are in a crisis like this because the world needs us to create momentum and move everything forward. Here is the mindset that I believe every entrepreneur should remember and use throughout this crisis.

Resources Mentioned:

https://clarityduringcrisis.com

Full Audio Transcript

Alex Charfen: This is the Momentum Podcast. Entrepreneurs are made for crisis. The world's been thrown sideways and we're all adjusting to it right now. We're dealing with a new reality that none of us ever expected. In this episode of the Momentum Podcast, Alex is going to help remind you as an entrepreneur that this is exactly what we're made for. We're different than the rest of the population. When there's a crisis, we're the ones who step up, create solutions and make the future of reality and Alex is going to share with you the mindset that every entrepreneur should remember and use throughout this crisis. I hope you enjoy.

I'm Alex Charfen and this is the Momentum Podcast made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers and creators of all kinds. Those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution. Sure we pay attention to their rules but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny, we define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop and we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future and instead of just daydreaming of what could be we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real.

We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution and we always will be. I wanted to jump in today and share a little bit of information with you on a concept that I have called being made for crisis. See, I think that a lot of entrepreneurs have forgotten, maybe we're not really thinking about the fact that this is who we are, that we are actually made for a situation just like this. Now before I get started, I want to help you qualify and understand what I'm talking about. See, I think when I say to people, hey, you might be made for crisis. When I say to people, this is who we are as entrepreneurs, this is what we're supposed to be dealing with. People look at me funny, how could it possibly potentially be that we're supposed to be dealing with this massive issue and challenge in the world? How could that possibly be where we're supposed to be?

Well, I want to just take a minute and let you self qualify what type of human being you are, what type of person you are. In fact, when I look at the world, I see four types of people and I want you to qualify which one you are so that you can understand how you should react in this crisis, so you can understand what your role is in this crisis, so you can understand what your responsibility in this crisis. See when I look at the population I always consistently see four different types of people and I want you to be able to self qualify. If you've listened to me for a while, you've heard this before, I share the four types of people when I speak in public all the time because I want to make sure that people understand who they are. It's funny, as I'm recording this, I just got a comment from a friend of mine, Molly Kaiser, she says, "You know you're made for crisis when you're happier now more than ever. And trust me, I wouldn't wish this on anyone I just love helping people."

I agree with Molly. She just sent me that. So here's how I look at it. I know I'm meant for crisis because I'm engaged, I'm super charged, I feel like I want to help. I feel like I've got more energy now than I have in a long time and I feel like I have a mission that I want to help people now more than I ever have. And I've always wanted to help people and I want to make it clear that I agree with Molly. I would never wish this crisis on any population but now that it's here, I want to make sure I remember who I am and I understand my role in this, so let's get to this qualification. So there's four types of people in the world. The first type of person in the world and I'll let you understand whether you're this type or not, is what I call the caretaker. Now, caretakers want to take care of other people.

And entrepreneurs often say things like, oh, I think I'm a caretaker because as soon as I bring that up here's what entrepreneurs think. I really care about people, I must be a caretaker but for each one of these types of people, I have a disqualification question. So the disqualification question for caretaker is a simple one, do you enjoy changing bed pans? And here's what I mean by that. Literally do you like walking into a room and changing someone's bed pan and a bed pan is the pan that you put in a bed when somebody can't get out so that they can use the bathroom in a bed. When I ask entrepreneurs if they enjoy changing bed pans, when I go out and speak and I'm in front of a hundred people and I say, okay, if you feel like you're a caretaker, how many of you enjoy changing bed pans and I ask them to raise their hands, predictably hardly anybody raises their hands and just as predictably a couple of people chuckle and say, who would ever enjoy changing bed pans?

Well, here's what's interesting. A few months ago, probably about a year ago, Cadey was in the hospital. She had a really challenging kidney stone, it was horrible. So the disqualification of do you enjoy changing bed pans? If you said no, then here's what I want you to know, you're probably not a caretaker because when Cadey was in the hospital with the kidney stone, I actually had a nurse come in and started working with her and I asked, because I always ask, I'm very curious about human beings. I said, "Hey, do you enjoy what you do? Do you enjoy taking care of the people, changing bed pans, doing what you do?" And this has happened to me more than once. She turned to me and she said, "Are you kidding? I love this. I love helping people. I love supporting people. I love taking care of people. If there's something a contribution to be made and I can be of service, I feel fulfilled."

Well, I want everyone watching and listening to me to know that I am not that person. When it comes to changing a bed pan, I run away, I don't want to be there. And so, when you're asked if you're a caretaker if you do not enjoy changing bed pans, if that's not fulfilling for you, you probably are not that personality type, so let's skip that one, let's skip that type of people or let's move on. So the first one's caretakers, love to take care of other people. This second type of person that I see in the world is the communicator. Communicators are the ones that like to talk about stuff, they like to communicate. They like to share what's going on. They actually like oral tradition. Throughout history, did we need caretakers in the evolution of humanity? Absolutely. We needed people that would take care of other people, take care of each other. We also needed communicators.

We needed people to carry on oral tradition. We needed people that said, hey, don't go over there and eat that, it'll kill you. This thing is poisonous. There's a wooly mammoth on that side of the mountain. We needed the people who talked and you can see communicators in today's world, especially in the crisis that we're under they're sharing information in theories and tons of stuff. They want to just talk about it and tell everybody about it and they love the communication. Now, for entrepreneurs, whenever I go out and speak, there's a disqualification question for a communicator because here's what's interesting. A lot of entrepreneurs think, well, that must be me. I've got a blog and a website and I do a ton of stuff and I put a lot of stuff out there. I love speaking, I love sharing, I love communicating, I must be a communicator.

Well, here's the qualification question for a communicator. Do you enjoy small talk? Tell me. Answer for me. Let me know. Do you enjoy small talk? And here's what's funny. When I go out and I speak and I ask the question, do you enjoy small talk? People actually start laughing because as entrepreneurs, as an entrepreneurial personality type, someone like me, I can't stand small talk. I'm actually shocked at how communicators can do it. I've seen two communicators standing at a water cooler have a 45 minute conversation about a 30 minute TV show. How do you even do to that? If I'm having a conversation with somebody, unless it means something, unless it matters, unless we're moving something forward, unless we're creating an outcome, I'm not into the conversation.

So if you are the same as I am and you can't stand small talk, you're probably not a communicator. So we've disqualified caretaker, we've disqualified communicator and you see these personalities in crisis. Caretakers, they want to make sure everybody feels great, everybody feels okay. They're asking if you're okay. Communicators, they are communicating like crazy. You can always tell a communicator's Facebook page because they've got 25 posts a day. They're trying to share all the information that they possibly can. And then the third type of person, remember there's two more. I want to know which one you are, I want you to tell me the third type of person is the coordinator. The coordinator is the person that loves to coordinate. They love order, they love rules, they love small print. In fact, they love contracts and not because there might be a contract but because they love the contract. Not because there's a deal, not because something's going to happen, they just love the mechanics of a contract.

So when I go out and speak to entrepreneurs rarely does anybody say yes, I think I'm a coordinator. Here is the disqualification question for a coordinator. The disqualification question is, do you enjoy sitting on committees? Does the thought of sitting on a committee scare you or does it sound really exciting to you? Because here's what I can tell you about coordinators, they love committees. They actually are proud to be on committees. They love the group think, they love the coordination. They love the machination of being on a committee. Whenever somebody asks me if I like to be on a committee, I will tell you, I absolutely do as long as I'm in charge and I say what's going on. When it comes to group decision making and all that other stuff, I can't stand it.

So if you're an entrepreneur and you've gone through these three, if you don't believe that you're a caretaker, you don't like to change bed pans and you're probably not a communicator who likes to just talk and share and love small talk and you're probably not a coordinator that loves the fine print and really wants to be on committees, so if you're not one of those three, or maybe you have some tendencies of those three but you haven't really heard the one that lands for you yet, let's go to the fourth personality type or the fourth type of person on the planet. There's the caretaker, the communicator, the coordinator and if we look at our evolutionary tribe, if we think of human beings throughout history, we had the people that were going to take care of people. We had the people that we're going to communicate, we had the people that coordinated. What are we missing? When I go out and speak people say things like the leaders, the people that do stuff, that people that move things forward, the people that are going to motivate everyone or maybe it's just the evolutionary hunters.

There's caretakers in the world, communicators in the world, coordinators in the world and then there is that small percentage of the population that gets up every morning and goes into the future, creates a new reality, comes back to the present and insist it becomes real. We are the evolutionary hunters and the disqualification question for evolutionary hunters is a simple one. See, this fourth type of person is motivated like crazy, moves forward on a daily basis, wants to be in momentum and the question is, can you turn it off? Can you turn it off? Can you get to that place where you don't want momentum, you don't want to move forward, you don't want to make things happen? Here's what I can tell you for me it's impossible. My whole life I haven't been able to shut it off. It's just there. I have this motivation that is going so strong every single day and you're probably a lot like me if you answered no to the first three.

Here's what it feels like. To be an evolutionary hunter, the person who goes out and makes things happen, the entrepreneur who creates new things in the world, we are driven just automatically. We have this inherent intrinsic motivation to go out and do things and make things happen and move the world forward because here's what I know about people like us. We can't turn it off and let's get real, we don't know why anyone would want to. Is the rest of the population like us? Heck no. Let's get real, the rest of the population does things like sick days. They actually want to get a day where they don't have to do anything. The rest of the population is dreaming about retirement. I can't even fathom what retirement would be, I'm never going to stop. I'm going to contribute and make things happen and make a massive impact on the world up until the day I'm not here anymore.

And so, here's why I want all of us to remember, we were made for a crisis. Being an evolutionary hunter is being in crisis all the time. As evolutionary hunters this is what we were made for, this is what we're built for. This is why we're here. I did an interview with one of my clients this week, one of my favorite people on the planet, Stephanie Karlovits, who runs Epic Fitness up in Ottawa, Canada. And on that interview she said, "What we need to understand as entrepreneurs is that crisis is just a period of forced change." And I loved when she said that, I got goosebumps because what does that really mean? Crisis equals forced to change and what does it really mean? Crisis equals accelerated change. And here's what I know about us as entrepreneurs. In our entire lives nothing has ever happened fast enough, are you like me where no matter what, it hasn't gone fast enough?

When somebody asks me, when do you want it done, Alex? My comments or my answers are always the same in my head. I might not say it out loud but I always think all at once and right away. Are you like me? Has the world never gone fast enough for you, has the world never accomplished as quickly for you? Well, here's what I want you to know. We are in a period of crisis, which is a period of accelerated change, which for people who can't turn it off, this is our time. This is who we are. This is our call to arms, this is our birthright. When the world is in crisis, when the present is challenging, this is where we check in. This is who we are. Here's what I know about you as an entrepreneur. There have been times in your life where you are chasing that small, tiny light at the end of the tunnel.

Are you with me? You know what I'm talking about? That time in your life where you didn't have enough resources and you didn't have the skill, you didn't have the experience, you shouldn't have been doing it but you moved forward seeing a tiny light at the end of the tunnel, so faint that nobody else around you maybe even believed in it or maybe they saw it and they would say, hey, that light at the end of the tunnel is a train but you move towards that light and you compelled that light towards you and you stepped through that light and that is where you became who you are. See, as entrepreneurs when we are in constraint, when we aren't seeing the path, when we don't know how to move forward, all we need a tiny light at the end of the tunnel and we will create momentum.

And as entrepreneurs, here's what we do. This is who we are. Throughout history, we have been that tiny percentage of the population that gets up every day and travels into the future, creates a new reality, comes back to the present and demands it becomes real. That is who we are and we experienced the vulnerability and the pain and the challenges of changing the status quo and making the world happen around us. And so, here's what I want you to know. You were made for this. This is who we are. This is where we check in. This is where we step up and this is where we've changed the world because we are the evolutionary hunters. Clearly the most consistent source of positive human evolution and we always will be. So regardless of what's going on in the present, no matter how challenging this crisis gets, remember, we are the human beings that will travel into the future, create a new reality, come back to the present and make it real. And the world needs us to do this now more than they ever have.

If you want more information on this crisis, about how you can understand, adapt and overcome as fast as possible and create a business that makes a contribution and is part of the solution, join me this week on my webinar, go to clarityduringcrisis.com, clarityduringcrisis.com. I'm going to share a full crisis briefing on exactly what's happening that you need to understand. The emerging market that we need to adapt to, so that we know how to continue to sell and make a living and make a difference and then how you can not just survive this crisis but adapt, overcome and make a massive impact. The world needs us now more than they ever have, who's with me? Go to clarityduringcrisis.com and let's spend some time together this week.

I can't wait to help you understand, adapt and overcome to this crisis that we're in because here's what I want everyone to remember, we've been here before. The world is always in crisis. Crisis is a constant. Right now it's just much more clear and we're seeing it much more brightly but crisis is a period of accelerated change, which means there's massive opportunity for us to step up and create solutions, step up and make a difference, step up and create momentum and take the world with us because they need us now more than they ever have. Clarityduringcrisis.com, I can't wait to see you on my webinar and thanks for being here with me today.

This is who we are. Throughout history, we have been that tiny percentage of the population that gets up every day and travels into the future, creates a new reality, comes back to the present and demands it becomes real.

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Who Is Alex Charfen?

Alex Charfen is the CEO of CHARFEN, an entrepreneurial coaching company servicing visionary entrepreneurs and showing them how to grow and scale their businesses through their provens tools, structures and systems.

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